As I’ve been getting back into development for Hydrate (a water intake tracker for iOS), I’ve been thinking about the sort of representation of myself as a developer.

When I think of a great developer, they usually have a small number of apps. Sometimes they’re all at a really high standard, but most independent developers I see, have one or two main apps, and a few more fun ones.

I have been developing for iOS/macOS for quite a few years, and I have to say most of them are dead, stale, or heading in that direction. So it’s time for a clear out. This might not be a very interesting article, but I certainly think the act of me writing this, will aid in the process.

For some background information, here is the list of apps that I’ve made for iOS/macOS, and their current status.

Name

Platform

Status

Description

Hydrate

iOS/watchOS

Available.

My current work-in-progress, a water intake tracker.

Pretty Regular Expressions

iOS/macOS

Available.

Regular expression tool for macOS/iOS. Very simple.

Pixels Sticker Pack

iOS

Available.

Some pixel art iMessage stickers!

AniMatchers

iPhone

Available.

Just a fun memory matching game, with cartoon animals.

Bill Splitter

iOS/watchOS

Available.

A super basic bill splitter. Mainly a small project so I could check out the watch SDK.

Qwiki

macOS

Available.

My wikipedia menu bar app, which is one of my best projects in my opinion, which I will hopefully update soon.

Tap Gap

iOS

Available.

A quick game for iOS, where you try and tap the screen when a line is between a certain gap.

Floppy Turd

iOS

Available.

An awful, but funny remake of Flappy Birds. It took a sunday morning to create, and that was where I left it.

TinyMe

iOS/macOS

Removed.

One of my first few apps, they used the goo.gl api to shorten longer links, but they aren’t an issue anymore.

Postie

macOS

Available.

I used to blog on Scriptogram, and this was a basic Markdown editor with publishing built in. The service has unfortunately shut down.

The Girlfriend Helper

iOS

Removed.

I think the first app I made. It was an app that suggested message you could send to your girlfriend depending on the event type.

Halloween FX

iOS

Removed.

Basic soundboard app, which also featured a timer so you could hide your phone and scare someone.

The Farm

iOS

Removed.

Even more basic soundboard app, just contained farm animals.

Bug Splatter

iOS

Removed.

This was a weird one, there’s multiple levels of bugs/difficulty, and the aim was to splat as many of them before they reached the end of the screen.

Whack

iOS

Removed.

A pretty simple whack-a-mole game, but with pixel art, and funny noises.

TextShot

macOS

Never made it.

This was a really fun project to work on, it was going to be an app where you could select a bunch of text, and it would generate a picture from it, even including multiple different styles. Sadly the MacBook I was using at the time died completely, and I wasn’t clever enough to think about source control back then.

Okay, I didn’t actually know I already removed a few of these already. But there’s still some clearing out to do.

My aim is to have a small number of applications, that either are stable, and need hardly any maintenance, or ones that I can regularly keep updated, and are proven to be worthwhile.

So if you just take the apps I have available, there’s 9. Well one isn’t released yet, but it’s in progress.

Hydrate

Pretty Regular Expressions

Pixels Sticker Pack

AniMatchers

Bill Splitter

Qwiki

Tap Gap

Floppy Turd

Postie

If I separate them into the groups I mentioned before, I’m left with this:

Maintainable Apps:

Hydrate

Qwiki

Pretty Regular Expressions?

Minimal Effort/Stable Apps:

Pixels Sticker Pack

Tap Gap

Left over:

AniMatchers

Bill Splitter

Floppy Turd

Postie

That was pretty quick and easy, and it sort of represents what I already had in my head. Out of the four left over, they all have very good reasons why I don’t want to support them anymore. Low download numbers, super old code, and lack of interest to work on them again.

So, they’re be removed.

That leaves just five remaining apps, three I feel that are maintainable, and the other two are kind of eternal to an extent.

Of course Hydrate will stay, I mean I haven’t even released it, and it’s still in active development. Qwiki is stable, and my most popular app, so that will also stay.

Pretty Regular Expressions however was initially well taken, but I haven’t had any desire really to go back to it, and improve it. I will have a look at the code again, and hopefully I can add something to make the app even better soon.

Pixels Sticker Pack is a bunch of images, and I can’t see myself ever needing to update these. They’re fun, and I still enjoy using them!

That leaves Tap Gap, it’s a simple game, that still works fine. I’ll certainly make a few changes and support the iPhone X soon, but that is only a minor issue.

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